Longtime readers have heard me say this before, but I’ll say it again. October is the favorite weather month of the year for your local scribe. Windbreaker weather is the best. The cool air seems to give me a little extra pep, kinda like splashing cold water on your face every morning. Hoping for some of that windbreaker weather and that cool slap in the face from Mother Nature this weekend.
Add in the facts that it’s football season, Major League Baseball playoff time, time for trips to the fall farms, mums, falling leaves, etc., and fall has many reasons to be the best time of year. What season is better for outdoor activity? Can’t beat it.
Try to remember the kind of September. . .
Those words could be the lyrics to a song. Actually, they already are, kids. Google it.
Don’t take this as some kind of global warming commentary because it’s not intended that way. But didn’t Septembers used to be cooler than what they are these days? I mean, again, this isn’t a political commentary, this is me trying to make an honest recall of my childhood and early adulthood. Sure seemed to me when I was a kid the windbreakers always came on in the month of September. Even as a kid I was never a fan of hot weather, and I don’t recall sweating through so many 90 degree September days back then.
This much I am confident of: In the mid-1980s, I can vividly recall multiple times coming home from covering a Platte County Pirates high school football game late on the Friday night of Labor Day weekend and needing to light the pilot on the natural gas furnace for my wife and our young daughter, who were feeling a little chilled by the time big daddy got home. (I just referred to myself as big daddy, even though nobody ever called me that. Allow me to indulge myself.)
That nip in the air on Labor Day weekend hasn’t happened for years, it seems.
A few lines from the song, just in case you haven’t Googled it yet.
Try to remember the kind of September when life was slow and oh so mellow
Try to remember the kind of September when grass was green and grain was yellow
Try to remember the kind of September when you were a tender and callow fellow.
For clarity, I said it was a song. I didn’t say it was a good song or even a catchy one. Or a well-written one. Music is a judgment call, you guys.
Try to Remember came out in 1965. The writing of popular lyrics has changed a bit since then, pretty sure.
Taylor Swift really is the modern day keeper of the lyrics. Everybody agrees, everybody agrees.
I think she’s also dating a football player, not sure where I heard that. Anyway, I guess the close friendship between the two of us is over after those fleeting backstage moments at Sandstone in 2005 that I told you about previously. I’ll always remember our conversation, though. I’m sure she will, too.
This week my buddy and page 3 columnist Chris Kamler advises you to stay out of casinos. Not bad financial advice, generally speaking, especially if you’re playing table games or slot machines. I will counter that you can find some opportunities in sports wagering on season long win totals. It’s not really your typical game of chance because you can use your sports knowledge, though of course you want to be disciplined with it and never risk more than you can afford to lose.
I must confess to Chris that I went to a casino on Monday night. It was to cash our latest over/under win total winner. Remember the ticket we held on the Royals to win under 69 games? Made that wager way back on March 27. This one was really never in doubt, kind of a rocking chair winner, if you will. The Royals finished with a record of 56-106, so they weren’t close to making us sweat this one out.
Hollywood Casino in Kansas City, Kan. is doing a major renovation of its sports betting area, which in casinos is known as the sportsbook. So a temporary sportsbook location has been set up in what used to be the casino’s buffet area. Or at least I was told it is the former buffet area. I’ll have to take their word for it because I had never been to Hollywood Casino until Kansas legalized sports wagering.
Anyway, I was told the revamped sportsbook area when it reopens the first part of the year will feature larger television screens, less clutter, and more comfortable furniture. Of those things, I’m most excited about the comfortable furniture part. The current seating is nothing short of awful, honestly, and if you’ve been there you are feeling my pain on this one.
“They should have done this a long time ago,” a Hollywood employee in the sportsbook told me. He isn’t wrong.
The annual Platte City Main Street Festival had a larger than normal turnout last Thursday evening. A lot of folks probably showed up just to see if the courthouse was still there.
It is. For now.
(Get more talk about fall weather and whatnot from Foley at ivan@plattecountylandmark.com)